[urlhttps://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/47058989[/url

Tut tut

And not for the first time

Are we surprised? They cheated the salary cap to avoid relegation

*gets out the popcorn*

Unlikely they would’ve gone over if they weren’t also paying to run a reserve side, coincidence that they announced they aren’t running one this year after this? Perhaps not as affordable as it seems.

Leneghan already oversees big profit losses, falling attendances, unable to match other big clubs with marquee signings and now this.

If they went over they went over. I'll get my popcorn and bucket of pepsi.

According to the BBC;
"The penalty, which includes a £5,000 fine, relates to six separate payments totalling £14,700, which were not declared to the Rugby Football League."

This is terrible news, 2 points deducted, it should have been 20 points!

A leopard never changes its spots

When did the “live” salary cap rules come in? I thought this sort of cheating was impossible now because all clubs finances were monitored for salary cap breaches? Seems odd that cheating in 2017 takes over a year to identify and punish.

Reading the report I take it as that it was "undeclared" therefore it wouldn't appear as "live".

It's not the 1st time they have fallen foul with regards cheating the salary cap, therefore I surprised it's not more points deducted.

Will they be stripped of the SL title when their opportunity to appeal has passed, a a Melbourne?
We’ve got a team who won the Grand Final who were in breach of the salary cap at that time.
Reading between the lines, although we have a live cap these payments were not declared by the club, so were not taken into account at the time. I’m guessing it’s similar to the Salford situation when payments were made to players via other companies associated with the club and then discovered later, but I’m just speculating.

I spoke to lennegan when he was at London as chairman and he said that he and his family were disgusted with Wigans breaches(Previous ones).

Now he has overseen cheating. Its in the Pies DNA

I don't know how this affects things but allegedly the payments were for agent fees and flight allowances (sounds farfetched to me) and they argued that they shouldn't count on the cap and so it had to go before an independent tribunal contributing to the delay.

No because the payments relate to the 2017 season in which Wigan won nothing.

Leeds won it?

LOL

RFL has some answering to regarding this:

Seems more like an oversight or a misunderstanding of the legislation rather than anything malicious or 'cheating' to me.
Probably similar to what happened to Bradford when they were found to have breached the cap, and that was actually in a year where Bradford won the GF.

You have to laugh at the timing of it though. The RFL statement says that the decision was reached last Thursday. So they've waited until now, the eve of the new season kicking off, to announce it

The salary cap should be increased to £3m

Before this gets much more sanctimonious these kinds of error are not uncomon and can hardly be seen as a deliberate attempt to cheat. The club statement is quite clear on what went wrong and it looks like an appeal would have a good chance of sucess in that the RFL has breached its own opperating proceedures. A legal challenge can be expected if not only because others have been treated differently for the same types of error. One worry is that this might become the standard and then many clubs could be worried.

Although Wigan have form in breeching the Salary Cap, this is hardly crime of the century.
It's more surprising that they didn't manage to "bury" the overspend somewhere in their accounts.

£14,700 on a salary cop of £1.9 million, less than 1%

The time when they should have been properly dealt with has long since gone and they'll probably appeal (again) and end up getting 2 points start, citing some obscure rule that nobody else knew about.

Its described as a technical breach rather than an attempt to cheat, 2 points still seems lenient, but it is different than the Salford situation which was an attempt to get round the cap full stop and was a far bigger figure. i would like to think they now are scrutinized more for the next couple of years and a much harsher punishment if it happens again. the fine should have been at least as much as they over spent, and 2 points the following season is hardly a deterrent. if it was 2 points last year fair enough but the following season 6 seems more appropriate and a bigger deterrent.

The 2 points will be handed back once Wigan have appealed. This is the RFL we are talking about after all.

So you think a 2 point deduction is appropriate for a less than 1% technical breach (one that didnt go on players salaries etc)?

Well said....can't stand cheats !